Judge Allows Release of Special Counsel Smith’s Report on Trump’s Election Interference – Firstpost

U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon on Monday authorized the publication of the special counsel’s volume Jack Smith report on President-elect Donald Trump’s interference in the 2020 election is the latest ruling in a legal dispute over the long-awaited document just days before Trump takes office again.

However, a temporary injunction preventing the immediate publication of the report will remain in place until Tuesday. U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon’s ruling is expected to face further challenges, with defense lawyers likely to appeal to the Supreme Court, according to Related press.

Cannon previously issued a temporary block preventing the department from releasing the full report of Smith’s investigation into Trump, which resulted in two separate criminal cases.

However, her latest order on Monday allowed the publication of a section on Trump’s interference in the 2020 election. She scheduled a hearing for Friday to determine whether the department can share with lawmakers a section related to the Trump secret documents case.

The department said it would not make the information public while the criminal case against Trump’s two co-defendants is still pending.

Smith resigned Friday after submitting his report to Attorney General Merrick Garland, the Justice Department revealed in a footnote to a lawsuit filed over the weekend.

The ruling, if upheld, could open the door for the public to learn additional details in the coming days about Trump’s frantic but ultimately unsuccessful efforts to stay in power in the run-up to the January 6, 2021 Capitol insurrection.

But even as Cannon allowed the volume on election interference to be published, she stopped the Justice Department from immediately releasing to congressional officials a separate volume on Trump’s collection of secret documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida.

Lawyers for two of the Republican president-elect’s co-defendants, Trump valet Walt Nauta and Mar-a-Lago property manager Carlos De Oliveira, argued that the release of the report would harm them given the ongoing criminal proceedings against them in the form of a Justice Department appeal to dismiss the charges Cannon.

As a compromise, the Justice Department said it would not make the document public but would instead make it available to elected congressional officials for private viewing. But Cannon put those plans on hold and instead scheduled the hearing for Friday afternoon, he said Related press.

“All parties agree that Volume II expressly and directly addresses these criminal proceedings,” she wrote.

“All parties also appear to agree that public release of Volume II would be inconsistent with defendants Nauta’s and De Oliveira’s due process rights and with Department of Justice policy governing the disclosure of information in the course of criminal proceedings.”

With agency input